3:10 to Yuma Audio Drama

Better hurry. We’re makin’ the last blasts through the mountains this week.

Ben Wade gunned down my kid brother in front of me six years ago in Abilene.

Name’s Lillian. You call me that, I’ll gut you like a fish. It’s Lilly. And I’m 16 too.

Please don’t call me miss.  Don’t worry, I won’t be any trouble. But y’all could use a pair of extra eyes. Trust me. I’m familiar with Ben Wade and his crew. Y’all need all the help you can get.

William, look, I know you didn’t like me very much on that day we first met.  Don’t try to deny it. I know you didn’t. Anyone could see that.  And that’s okay.  I know I wasn’t the best company and I’m sorry about that. It’s just that…I don’t have a very healthy taste of men. You know, with my daddy bein’ like he is and all. So…I don’t really know how to act around them. And I hide all of that behind a smile because it’s just easier that way.

Hey, Boss. You okay?

(to a crowd) Listen up!  Listen up!!  That’s Ben Wade they have up there. Ben. Wade.  Now, the Railroad intends to put him on the 3:10 to Yuma and hang him.  We will give you two hundred cash dollars to any man who shoots any one of his captors.

(to Ben) Is it true that you dynamited a wagon full of prospectors in the Western Territories last spring?

(as they torture Ben) You can’t do that. That’s immoral.

Lilly turned over and put her hat over her eyes. William did the same and he fell asleep thinking about his father and even more about the girl lying next to him. He wondered how easy it would be to kill her while she was sleeping…

It was kind of strange for William to not see her smiling. She had been smiling since the second he met her, but now she just looked so…vulnerable.  She just shook her head and still said nothing. William put his hand on hers to get them to stop shaking.  Lilly looked up at him and it would be lying to say that she didn’t feel some kind of…connection in that moment.

Without a word, Lilly threw her arms around Dan’s neck and hugged him tightly. She let the moment last as long it possibly could, unwilling to release from the hold she had longed for her entire life. Dan’s strong arms went around her tiny waist and he hugged her back. She squeezed her eyes shut and felt two tears finally drip from her eyes.  Finally, she broke away from him and followed William to the door.

Do you ever wipe that stupid smile off your face? (L: Only when there’s nothin’ to smile at. Like when I actually paid my respects for those men while you just kept goin’.) Whatever. By the way, I won’t call you a little girl if you don’t call me a little boy.

(to a very shaken up Lilly) That was, uh…really brave, what you did.  (L: Don’t mean it was easy.)  You alright?  (Lilly is silent.)  I’m guessin’ that wasn’t your first time doin’ somethin’ like that?

Lilly, I’m the one who should be apologizin’. I was just like everyone else and figured that because you’re a girl, you can’t do nothin’ that us guys can. But you’ve proven me wrong. I’m just sorry I was so awful when you had lived through complete hell because of the Apaches.

(angrily) William, what are you doin’ here?

(as Ben chokes him) I ain’t never been no hero, Wade.  The only battle I seen, we was in retreat. My foot got shot off by one of my own men. You try tellin’ that story to your boy. See how he looks at you then.

(tenderly) Lilly, if I ever had a daughter, I’d want her to be just like you.

Money in your pocket in Dodge City.  You can have everything a man ever wished for. Everything a man comes to need. I got there on my own as a boy not much bigger than you. (D: And how many men you killed since then, Wade? How many families you destroyed?) (almost remorsefully) Quite a few. (P: Is it true that you dynamited a wagon full of prospectors in the Western Territories last spring?) No, that’s a lie. (a beat) It was a train-full.

Your brother was a lyin’, bilkin’ card sharp.  That is, if he’s the deadbeat I remember. Could, of course, been some other deadbeat I killed that I forgot about

(about Lilly's mother) I loved her. I had never loved a woman more in my entire life. It must’ve been fifteen years ago now. I found her in this little town. She was there takin’ a break from her life at home because her husband wasn’t bein’ good to her. She kept talkin’ on and on about her beautiful baby daughter back at home.  She planned to run away with me and her daughter, start over. She made me want to raise a family with her and settle down, forget about the past. We was all ready to do that too. But some people came lookin’ for me. She got hit by a stray bullet. I held her in my arms as she died. That was why she never came home.  I still remember the last thing she said to me. She looked me in the eye, and said, ‘Ben Wade, you’ll be alright.’ You are just the spittin’ image of her. Lilly, she loved you more than anything. Don’t you ever forget that.

YOUNG COWBOY: (smirking) Morals got nothin' to do with it.

MARSHAL: If it’s a fair fight, well, sure. I’d stay for that. A fair fight, that—that’s a man’s duty, but there’s only five of us. I’m sorry, mister, but I’m not gonna die here today.  And neither are my men.

DEPUTY:(nervously) There sure are a lot of ‘em.  I didn’t figure on it bein’ the whole gang.

(condescendingly) What kind of help could you be, little lady? We’ve had dozens of men try to stop him and they haven’t succeeded.

(shakily) Dan? I can’t do it, Dan. And if I can’t do it, you shouldn’t do it either.  If you think you have an obligation to me or to the railroad, I assure you, you do not. I’m releasin’ you.